Russian law enforcement agencies have detained a suspect and an alleged accomplice in a reported assassination attempt on Vladimir Alekseyev, the deputy head of Russia’s military intelligence agency (GRU), according to Russian media reports on February 7.
According to Kommersant, the suspect has already been questioned, and a court hearing to determine pre-trial detention is expected to take place on February 8. The newspaper reported that a criminal case has been opened on charges of attempted murder and illegal arms trafficking. After questioning, the suspects are expected to be formally charged, although it has not been officially confirmed whether both individuals have been detained. Russian authorities have not issued an official statement confirming the arrests.
Kommersant reported that Alekseyev successfully underwent surgery and regained consciousness on February 7 but remains under medical supervision. No official statement has been made regarding his condition. According to Russian Telegram news channels Mash and Baza, the person who shot Alekseyev is being “transported from Dubai,” and an alleged accomplice has also been detained. There is still no information about the identity of the suspects or the perpetrators. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov accused Ukraine of being behind the assassination attempt, claiming — without presenting evidence — that it was designed to sabotage peace talks.
The number two official of the GRU was shot and wounded in Moscow on February 6 in what investigators described as an attempted assassination. Kommersant reported that investigators believe Alekseyev was shot by an individual disguised as a food delivery courier who gained access to his apartment building. According to the report, Alekseyev, who was on his way to work, was shot twice on the stairwell and a third time while trying to resist the attack, after which the assailant fled the scene.
Alekseyev is the deputy commander of the GRU, the intelligence agency of Russia’s Ministry of Defense, known for conducting bold operations ranging from sabotage, assassinations, espionage, and cyberattacks.
Britain has implicated Alekseyev in the near-fatal Novichok poisoning of former Russian spy Sergei Skripal in the UK in 2018. A British woman later died after accidentally being exposed to the nerve agent. Alekseyev has also been linked to Yevgeny Prigozhin, co-founder of Russia’s most notorious mercenary company, the Wagner Group. Prigozhin died in a plane crash in August 2023, which Western intelligence officials later concluded was an assassination.
The U.S. Treasury Department has sanctioned Alekseyev and other GRU officers over the hacking of U.S. political parties and other cyber-espionage operations. If confirmed, the attempted assassination of Alekseyev would be the latest in a series of attacks targeting senior Russian military officials — many of them in Moscow. Suspicion for these attacks has largely fallen on Ukrainian intelligence services, which have carried out bold sabotage and assassination operations inside Russia in recent years.
In December, Lieutenant General Fanil Sarvarov, head of the operational training directorate of the General Staff, died after a bomb exploded under his car near Moscow. Eight months earlier, another lieutenant general, Yaroslav Moskalik, deputy head of the General Staff’s operations directorate, was killed in a car bombing outside Moscow. In 2024, the officer responsible for Russia’s nuclear and chemical weapons defense forces was killed when an electric scooter exploded on the sidewalk outside his apartment building in Moscow. /RFE/RL/
